Women With Balls: Karen Pierce

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Karen Pierce is the UK's Permanent Representative to the UN. In this episode, she talks to Katy about her career ambitions when she was young, using Lewis Carroll to combat the Russians, and what day to day life is like in the UN.

Women With Balls is a podcast series where Katy Balls speak to women at the top of their respective games. To hear past episodes, visit spectator.co.uk/balls.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Women with Balls, where I, Katie Balls, talk to today's trailblazers.
0:09.0	Today I'm delighted to be joined by Karen Pierce, the UK's ambassador to the UN.
0:14.0	Pierce has had a long career as a diplomat joining the foreign office in 1981.
0:18.0	Her work has taken her to Japan, Washington, D.C., and Afghanistan.
0:22.6	In March 2018, she became the first woman to ever be appointed as the UK's permanent
0:27.6	representative to the UN. With the Security Council responsible for maintenance of international
0:32.6	peace and security, Pierce fights the UK's diplomatic battles.
0:42.0	Pierce was thrown into the deep end when in her first week in the job, she found herself in battle with Russia on the Security Council over who was to blame for the Novichok nerve
0:47.0	agent poisoning in Salisbury. When her Russian counterpart suggested that they would present
0:52.2	new evidence in the emergency session.
0:54.5	Pierce replied, Bring it on.
0:56.7	The pair went on to cross-literary swords, exchanging Lewis Carrel, Alison Wonderland quotes, to
1:02.2	make their points.
1:03.2	This paper has just been picked up.
1:05.8	What's in it? said the Queen.
1:07.8	I haven't opened it yet, said the White Rabbit, but it seems to be a letter written by the
1:13.1	prisoner to somebody.
1:15.1	Are they in the prison's handwriting as another of the jurymen?
1:19.4	No, they are not, said the White Rabbit.
1:21.6	Please, Your Majesty, said the knave, I didn't write it, and they can't prove I did.
1:26.6	There is no name signed at the end. If you didn't sign it and they can't prove I did. There is no name signed at the end.
1:29.1	If you didn't sign it, said the king, that only makes the matter worse.
	...

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